State has been directed to set up a separate development authority The Centre has asked the Jharkhand government to show urgency on both security and development matters in the Left-Wing-Extremism-affected Saranda forest. The State has been directed to set up a separate development authority to carry forward its initiative to provide basic amenities to 7,000 tribal families in the forest, and demanded early allocation of land for setting up 24 more CRPF...

-Express News Service Queationing the methods and the ethics of Anna Hazare’s proposed fast in Mumbai next week to press for a strong Lokpal bill, the Bombay High Court today refused to intervene in the petition by his supporters seeking concessions in charges for using a government ground as the venue for its campaign. Reacting to the court’s observations, Hazare said that his team would hold the protest at the MMRDA ground...

-The Times of India   Bapi Sarkhel, in the eye of a storm since the December 14 violence near Poscoproject site in Jagatsinghpur, said on Thursday certain politicians seeking his arrest had benefited from him in the past, but turned against him as they saw him as a threat. Police has booked him on charges of fomenting trouble in the proposed Posco steel plant site and attacking anti-land acquisition villagers in the...

The uncertainty over the Lokpal Bill has overshadowed an equally significant National Food Security Bill, which was cleared by the Union Cabinet last week and is to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The Bill has been in the eye of the storm over targeted coverage of beneficiaries as against universalisation in view of the immense ramifications for the aam aadmi , struggling with rising food prices. In the second...

-The Hindu   The government has announced that all rural development programmes, including the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, would be brought under the auditing ambit of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). The outlay on rural development programmes during the current fiscal has been put at Rs. 88,000 crore. “You will be happy to know that for the first time the government has decided to bring all...